3 Unlikely Places to Find Blogging Inspiration

If you ask me, any professional who is required to do a great deal of writing is bound to stumble on a “writer’s block” (Or in this case, “blogger’s block.” ) So how does a blogger beat the block? Well, inspiration is the key.

Finding inspiration is an iffy thing because it’s not automatic. Sometimes that spark happens so easily, but there are times when you have to put yourself through a wringer to extract it. But nonetheless, inspiration does happen. Here are three places to I think are the last place people will look for blogging inspiration:

The Mall – People often go though lengths to find a quiet place and wait for that spark. Well, a busy place like the mall can give you a rich place of people to observe, watch trends, and find something interesting to blog about. Just sit in one spot and just try observing people.

Talk Radio – Radio may be considered the granddaddy of media, but there’s still some interesting talk happening over there. Talk radio may be a great place to get a feel of what a specific segment is in to these days, like politics and entertainment.

Online Forums – Yeah, online forums have been out of the radar for sometime now, with blogs and microblogs hogging the limelight. But some of the more intense debates still happen on forums. Try lurking on some forums and you might find a controversial topic worth writing about.

Just remember, blogging inspiration doesn’t have to come from other people’s blogs.

As a professional writer the past 25 years in newspaper journalism, books and editing, for me, the biggest block is the blank piece of paper, or nowadays, the blank screen. Just getting going helps, and don’t delete the stuff you don’t like as you’re writing your story until you get the paragraph or section just right.

Research, any research, will cure writer’s block. A lot of people have this romantic idea that writing is about conjuring up eloquent and insightful passages, bridging them together into the best thing that’s been writ since . . . well, the little blurb they wrote to put on the flap of their first best seller. The writing process is at least 90 per cent research whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose.
Good stories write themselves but they need good writers to craft them together.

Take notes and review them regularly. Try writing a paragraph in your notebook away from your computer. Don’t let those little inspirations you get evade you because you can’t remember them once you fire up your word processor.

There are lots of ways to get the juices flowing. These are some of mine.